Get Over Yourself: Bridge Project Demo

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“Are you ready for the next bridge building challenge?” The website for Bridge Project lists other works, including Bridge It, Bridge Construction Set, Pontifex and Gish. One of those is not like the others. The Bridge Project is out now and, with the release, here’s another Tuesday afternoon demo for you. As your shoddy physical constructs tremble and collapse think of them as the hope for togetherness and bipartisanship on the most crucial issues of our time. Then try again. Try harder. There are some bridges below for you to look at.

That’s a very long bridge, isn’t it? The Wikipedia page doesn’t just have a description of the bridge, it has a story about it too.

This is a true story, dates back to the British rule in India. The Pamban Bridge is situated in Tamil Nadu, India. At the entrance of the bridge you can see a picture of a weeping man holding some human body parts close to his chest.

Is that a bridge story you would care to read in full? It sounds like it might be ghastly.

This is probably the most famous bridge that I have personally crossed. There is a film named after it, which isn’t something many bridges can claim. I have walked across New Bridge in Paris as well (NOT THE NINTH BRIDGE) and that’s in the film Les Amants du Pont-Neuf, but I don’t think it’s as famous as the Bridge on the River Kwai (which isn’t on either of the rivers Kwai).

This next video has loads of bridges in it. Maybe you’ll be inspired to build bridges of your own after watching it?

I quite liked the Iain Banks book, The Bridge. Does anyone have any interesting stories or facts about bridges?

When I was in highschool, there was usually an extra credit that could be earned by building a popsicle stick bridge and submitting it in a province-wide competition. I never actually attended any of the testing events, but having just made a bridge, tested it and had a boat’s smoke stack completely demolish the thing, I now have an idea of what I was missing. On top of that, my father made a computer program to simulate bridges when he was in university. He still has the punch cards for it in the basement someplace. He might get a small kick out of this.

Triangles. Make a lot of triangles. Triangles are strong. That’s about the only thing I can remember my dad ever telling me about bridge construction. Well, I’ve heard good things about arches too, but as far as I could find in the demo, there’s not much support for those.

My favorite bridge is the Outerbridge Crossing in New York City. Its name would appear to be rather descriptive, as it is the most southern and therefore the “outermost” bridge in the city, although having “Crossing” would seem redundant. It’s not actually, because the name has nothing to do with its location, but is in fact named after a man named Outerbridge, which seems just beautifully apt.

The most memorable bridge from my childhood was the Bridge of Sighs in Venice. I only read about it and saw images in books, but it had a lasting impact on my young mind, seeming not only creepy but horrifically symbolic. A direct passage to death, shielded from outside eyes.